User reviews

I wish I could have given this a standing ovation, really I do. I loved the first half. The second could have been so good; all about impossible feelings and the characters accepting that fact, thriving on what little could be had and growing from it. But it was all squandered away in an apparent belief that "stuff has to happen."

I'll admit it would have been rather predictable even if it had been completed in a proper manner. But the mood and production was such that I don't think it would have bothered me. I am left with a fraction of the magic that could, nay should, have been here.

This ought to have been a strong 8. Instead I must score it a 6. And that makes me sad.

Every moment between stars Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones is memorable, unfortunately, even a great cast, fine performances and solid cinematography couldn't combat against a weak script.

Breathe In (2013)

An exquisitely written story that belies its simple arc of a plot. On the surface this looks like a story of a married man falling for one of his students—been there done that so many times it might not survive another iteration. But here that basic hook is used to dig rather deeply into the problem of this man's life—not only why he might be tempted into a foolish affair, but why, in a weird way, it isn't (for him) foolish. The first half of this movie plays this out with finesse.

The teacher is worked to a delicate balance by Guy Pearce, an ever thoughtful actor who seems perfectly cast. He's a musician who has turned to teaching music to make a living, and he clearly appreciates art and good music, always for the poetic depth it gives him. His wife (Amy Ryan) is superficial to a perfect degree—her interest is collecting cookie jars. And their daughter is a swimming star, cheerful but not a bit deep. Neither of them gives him a bit of what he really needs.

So when a foreign exchange high school student—a budding pianist—arrives in their house, an obvious opportunity arises. And I don't mean for some fun or an emotional sidetrip, but for a revival of honest feelings for life. Felicity Jones plays this out with an expected mix of shy expectance and seductive depth.

The second half of the movie, unfortunately, lets some of the restraint and delicacy crumble, and the more it descends (or rises, if you like excess) into unlikely extremes, the more it is just a story told for its plot twists. For me that became less interesting, especially because I so much liked the subtle writing in the beginning.

The final scene brings home that the point of the movie really is about that pretense of happiness upper middle class (or upper class) families work so hard to keep. To everyone's detriment. There is a lot here to like in an ultimately compromised plot.

It appears Drake Doremus is fascinated by English-American relationships to the point of obsession. I didn't see his previous film Like Crazy as it was a little too close to home for me and I didn't wanna risk the potential dreary things it had to say. But then, maybe Doremus is just fascinated by Felicity Jones. Although I loved her in Cemetery Junction, I haven't seen any of her films since. She has a strange screen presence where she can go from charming to icy, perhaps at will. And maybe that suits this quiet and subtle film. Much like the perspective of its protagonist, a stifled artist played by Guy Pearce, Breathe In plays its first hour deliberately close to the chest with cold mundane sequences detailing the characters plain routine of life. It captures it in voyeuristic cinematography, saturating their world in dull blues and greys.

With improvised dialogue from the actors in an attempt to feel its way through the drama of the film, acting can sometimes feel natural but more often than not, it can feel awkward. It's a double-edged sword in its style of choice, one that's a risk in if it'll pay off. It's a slow build, and unfortunately one that feels like it's not setting up enough. But this is a difficult topic. Older man and younger woman relationships can often feel uncomfortable, especially when it's a challenge to get the audience to sympathise with such privileged characters in the first place. If there was one thing that could save Breathe In from averageness, it was making the core relationship sincere. And a pleasant surprise, it won me over. It taps into the human condition and reveals the emotional needs that bind us all. That connection bolsters the film significantly and makes its relatively urgent third act all the more compelling. While it can feel unnecessarily melancholic, Breathe In is a film of rewarding delicate touches if in small doses.

7/10

One of the problems with casting a person for a teenage role who is actually way older, is that you get an inaccurate depiction of what a teen is really like. This is true in terms of both looks and emotion.

I admit that I've met some 18 year old girls who seemed way older. But I never saw them deal with life crises. I bet they would not have dealt with them the way a 28 year old would. Felicity Jones was much older in real life than the character she played. In reality the male lead was only 16 years older than her. But he is probably supposed to be about 25 years older.

The attractive young woman who shares the male lead's interests and passions is a symbol of the disappointment of his life. His wife cannot relate to him, and perhaps never could. She was probably just humoring his musical lifestyle when they were young.

Ironically, the young girl will probably grow up to be just like his wife. She'll want a house in the country and a husband with a steady conventional job.

Not much happens in this film. It is all innuendo and atmosphere. But both of those are done beautifully. Upstate New York looks exquisite, the shots of the beautiful young woman are artistically pleasing, and the classical music fits the scenes perfectly.

Credit is due to the actors for portraying longing, and stifling dissatisfaction with aplomb. You feel their desperation without them saying much. Having said that, I would have appreciated at least one monologue from the male about how he really feels. If he could take down his guard for a few minutes and let it all out, that would have made the film. You could still keep all the subtle moments, but let him break down once and tell us something about how it feels.

My favorite scene is when the neighbor guy cavalierly says what is on both their minds. That was refreshing. He simply states that his neighbor has a hot young thing living with him and asks him what it's like. Then he says that it would be great to be young again.

This was a piece of self-indulgent art, but certainly worth viewing if you have the patience. Great cinematography, stellar acting, and plenty of mood music.

At first the film is okay and then it gets really good with the family and then an exchange student, Sophia, comes along with them. Both, Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones are English and very good working together here. The music is also really very well done, he wants to have more orchestral work instead of teaching and she is amazing on the piano because she says that her uncle taught her when she was only five. Both of them are rather good together although maybe the mother and sister not so. All though some can have an affair and hope that it doesn't mess up their life at home so that they can have it both ways. In this film, and I think it is often that as in this one, even if Keith doesn't realise at first, but maybe he wants to change his life. It is rather splendid but I thought that it ended rather too quickly.

Breathe In will suck the desire to sit through this movie right out of you early on, with irritating direction by Drake Doremus that employs repetitive, redundant symbolism shots of objects and elements of nature as if this were somehow a revelation. Instead, it's headache inducing, and drags this painful movie out even longer.

The amateurish direction is joined by a collection of characters so unlikable that you can't root for any of them.

Felicity Jones can usually melt anyone with her smile alone, and is usually fun to watch in anything she does. But even her presence can't save this disastrous film.

This was a beautifully made film with incredible tender moments, extremely self indulgent as it is (and boy is it). All of Drake Doremus' movies are similarly self indulgent and strange not-so-Hollywood ideas of love and tenderness. I'm always here for it.

This one though... this one crushed my soul with the end. Maybe it was meant to be a very depressing end, because that's what it was. Maybe it's realism in that respect, and of course I wanted something different (I don't even know what because the emotional affair alone is pretty wrong!).

Aside from this disappointment it really is supremely well crafted. To the person who can't figure out why it's rated R and said there's no violence - I mean sure, if you don't count the high school boy trying to rape the young girl. Aside from that things don't have to be gratuitous to actually be sexual or violent. Not to mention the inappropriate relationship is a good thing not to glamorize for teenagers.

Unhappily married man falls for beautiful woman half his age whom he believes will free him from his imaginary prison: this plot has been done so many times, very rarely with any creativity or passion, and so Drake Doremus' latest addition to the anthology, Breathe In, doesn't inspire much excitement at first glance. But Doremus successfully sidesteps the staple clichés of the infidelity drama and has crafted an oddly delicate, taut, and surgical film that captivates and succeeds in spite of a few minor plot conveniences.

Keith Reynolds (Guy Pearce) is an ex-guitarist whose passions and hobbies have been stifled in favor of a suffocating teaching job and a quiet home life in a New York suburb with wife Megan (Amy Ryan) and daughter Lauren (Mackenzie Davis, a real find). During Lauren's senior year of high school, the family hosts pleasant but guarded exchange student Sophie (Felicity Jones), whose presence chips away at an evidently already fragile marriage and Keith's resentfully upheld responsibilities.

Doremus' breakthrough picture Like Crazy (also starring Jones) drew its fair share of detractors for its unconvincing plot developments and shockingly naive characters. He still doesn't have a complete handle on how to let plots develop organically, and Keith and Sophie are destructive and weak-willed if not naive, but Doremus is clearly growing as a writer: the bumps are less jarring, the characters more understandable. Breathe In is expertly precise and poetically delicate: sensational arguments and wild sex scenes are excluded in favor of subtle tremors in relationship dynamics and a tentative, genuine mental connection between the two leads. A plot line that lends itself easily to melodrama is instead executed with restraint and grace: Keith and Sophie don't even kiss until over an hour into the film and instead grow closer through fleeting glances, shared passions, mutual desires to break free, and support and curiosity that neither have received from another person in a very long time. Refreshingly, for once, it's not at all about sex - it is sensual, but the leads connect on a profound, intimate level rather than a physical one and, strangely enough, there are times when you can't help but want them to be together.

Pearce gives his best performance in years here as vulnerable and secretly needy Keith; he perfectly captures the crushing regret and childish idealism of a midlife crisis, and his slow unraveling at Sophie's touch is beautiful to watch. Jones, for the third year in a row, deserves some serious attention for her work here - Sophie is a stereotypical faux-intellectual, confident she sees all and knows all, and Jones retains that adolescent conceit while imbuing her with a deep, affecting loneliness and pain and a quiet but steely veneer masking it from the world. It's less showy, but more intricate and adult than her work in Like Crazy. Mackenzie Davis' first major movie role is pretty demanding and full of pitfalls, yet she creates the most sympathetic character in the film. Amy Ryan unfortunately isn't given much to do, and occasionally her character feels uncomfortable villainized, but she gives Jones a look at the end of the film that says much more than a 10- minute screaming scene ever could and confirms that she is one of the most insightful and communicative actresses around. There's not much dialogue in the film, and most of it is layered with subtext rather than explicitly revealing, so a great deal of responsibility falls on the cast's shoulders, and they more than carry their weight.

Critics of Like Crazy probably won't be won over by Breathe In as in terms of direction, style and writing it follows many of the same formulas - a simple piano score, natural and unaffected cinematography, many close-ups and scenes where nothing at all is communicated verbally. The characters are less likable this time, and while they are more fleshed out and therefore easier to relate to, it's difficult to find someone to root for. But Doremus is maturing: there's less reliance on plot contrivances to move the story along, and instead he lets the tiny fissures, the soundless sensuality, and the growing tension drive the film to its explosive and agonizing finale. There is some great character- and dynamic-building here, and once Doremus has a better grasp of storytelling, he will really be a force to be reckoned with.

I watched Drake Doremus' 2013 film Breath In last night. I always enjoy seeing Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones, both of whom seem to be everywhere these days. I wondered what would draw them both into what seemed to be a tiny film. I was not disappointed.

The story is essentially a British forbidden love novel with all the right beats and few of the traps that D. H. Lawrence would have merrily strewn through it. The actors were well chosen, and every effort was made to restrain what could easily have been a tawdry, melodramatic and self-righteous tale. Doremus, who also wrote the film, made sure that every character had a firm perspective and the romance was attributed at least in part to events in their lives at that moment. What happened could simply not have been avoided by real people, which should be said of all stories.

No mere love story, "Breathe In" is a quietly powerful film about two people who are eloquently and achingly swept up in a deep "connection" that defies description. To label this honest and beautiful film a "family drama" does it an injustice, but if that's what it is, then "Breathe In" is the best family drama I have ever seen. Felicity Jones as Sophie, the visitor, is captivating -- insightful, kind, and vaguely troubled. Sophie also happens to be a piano prodigy, perhaps an allusion to being a sort of "prodigal daughter." The film's atmosphere is masterful,an outstanding collaboration of cinematography, production design, and music. Breathe In maintains tension without ever becoming shrill,oppressive, or melodramatic, a balance that has been difficult to strike in so many of the "family dramas" that have come before it.

I was a fan of director Drake Doremus after watchin' his "Like Crazy", the main reason of watching these movie despite of the reviews and ratings, was felicity jones & the direcor. The movie was an intense drama with solid performances from Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones, delivering the delicacy intimation of troubled unveiled emotions inside a married yet a father and an 18-years old girl. May be some find the plot line was disturbing, the film made it up with its measured direction and BGM. what bugs me about the movie was, what happens to Sophie(Felicity Jones) aftermath of the family's exploiting reunion.?? i really need to know what she does with her insecurities and independent little girl inside her?

A movie which makes us think twice of ourselves(for those who simply gets involved in this film)

I could watch Guy Pearce in anything but didn't finish this. Director kept us from involvement with characters by intrusive camerawork and faltering conversations.

Romantic movie with good cinematic.

Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce portrayed her roles in such a deep and memorable way.

I chilled to this today why my kids and hubby were out. It's was just kinda needed. It's was a chilled film. Good performances, kinda felt for guy Pearce character as he was o by loving a kinda lie but you really what you sew. Worth a watch.

This film manages to capture so much in so little time. Rarely do I think about a movie long after it's over, but I will be thinking about this for days. I could go on and on about the acting, or the direction, but that would do a disservice to what was actually presented. This is an in-depth study of a family and how their relationships change as they welcome an exchange student into their home.

Everything works together so beautifully here, almost too well. In a very profound way, these people manage to represent a struggle which has been done over and over, yet is captivating.

I'll be honest. This was hard for me to finish. The emotions running through the course of the movie were much too strong for what I thought I was getting myself into. Most classical musicians would have a difficult time with this film. In a single word, "beautiful." And if it had to be two words, the second would be "wrenching." I think we all long for this type of connection, but how to maintain it is the question that is asked of us. This was an honest and obtrusive peek into the way we live our lives. That's what separates film from art. There are many painters, many musicians, but few artists. Art is all about pulling things from people they didn't know they had, and I think anyone could gain something from this, if one can only manage to think past the here and now.

Fantastic cast. Difficult story. Great performances. Beautiful soundtrack. I give this film a 7 (good) out of 10. {Drama}

"Breathe In" is a film whose plot sounds a bit salacious. And, considering it's a rated R film, I was a bit apprehensive to see the movie. After all, the film is about a man who falls in love with the high school exchange student that he and his wife took into their home. However, the film turned out to be extremely well made and not at all what I expected. And, I have no idea why it's rated R, as the film has no nudity, violence and the language is awfully tame. Overall, it's well worth your time finding this film--and it's available as of this week with Netflix.

When the story begins, Keith Reynolds (Guy Pearce) and his wife Megan (Amy Ryan) seem to have a very good life. Their daughter is a pretty high school athlete, they have a lovely home in the suburbs and the marriage seems strong. All of this is shaken shortly after they take in Sophie (Felicity Jones)--an exchange student from Britain. You begin to notice that there are some problems in the Reynolds marriage. Keith is a frustrated musician who dreams of leaving his teaching job to be a full-time musician. However, Megan won't even consider this and insists that he must continue working to keep the family just as it is now. And, she is quite dismissive of his dreams and seems to have little desire to connect with his love of music. Here is where Sophie comes into the picture. She is a great pianist herself and loves Keith's music. She also encourages him with his dream of joining a great orchestra. So, as the film progresses, the pair become closer and closer. And so, when they begin to feel inappropriate feelings towards each other (especially since he is her teacher), it's not especially surprising and, in some ways, it's expected by the viewer. However, and this is important, the film is NOT meant as a romance or endorsement for middle-aged men to have sex with young exchange students. Instead, it's a character study about loneliness within a marriage--loneliness which may push someone to consider making some very stupid choices.

So why do I recommend the film? Well, the film is so well made in so many ways. The acting (particularly by Pearce and Jones) is so good because it seems so real. And, the director did a nice job of combining this acting, a nice and provocative script and some really wonderful emotive music into a great little package. I also liked it because it really makes you think and assess where you are in your life. It really struck close to home for me and my own marriage. For me, it was actually very affirming because my own wife went through a mid-life crisis like Keith Reynolds--wanting to give up a very lucrative career as an engineer to become a fiction writer. But, unlike Megan, I thought this was great. Sure, it might mean giving up a lot for the family so that she could follow her dream...but we also knew it would kill her if she didn't--and she is worth the sacrifice. And, in the end, we are all so much better for it--she is quite successful and the change has definitely been for the better for not just her but the entire family.

As I mentioned above, this film just came out on Netflix this week and is well worth seeing--particularly with your partner or other loved ones. Don't worry about the R rating--it's also fine for you to see with your teens or mother! I also noticed a reviewer who saw the film as tedious. Well, I sure didn't and it kept my interest throughout.

I watched "Breath In" last night with my wife and when its finished she said that "I just finished the movie and its so beautiful that I can watch it again just now" and this quote goes for me too. If you think we are exaggerating then go and watch yourself this movie and you ll agree with us.

I love the overall feel of the movie. Its a tiring subject which has been shown in movies many times but the way this movie portrays the same subject is outstanding and beautiful. All the actors did tremendous acting. I cant praise enough the scenes between Guy Pierce and Felicity Jones. I can watch this movie hundred of times and still enjoy it like I did in my first viewing.. What a beautiful wonderful movie. I also love the fact that there is no overly dramatic music in this movie and we just hear very beautiful piano notes and some outstanding cello which is well matched with the atmosphere of the movie.

I can say this without any hesitation that I have seen hundred of films this year but this is easily the best film of 2013 I have seen this year. I wish they make more movies like this one. Usually movies like these are made by Foreign film makers so its a breath of fresh air to see American Directors are experimenting with such cinema too.